Last weekend The Blot traveled to Austin to attend Wizard World’s 2012 Austin Comic-Con. This is the second year in a row I’ve attended the event and it just keeps getting bigger and better (literally). The convention floor was larger, the crowds were bigger and overall, the event felt bigger. This year’s show was all about one thing…Star Trek: The Next Generation. As it turns out, Austin Comic-Con would be the only time the show’s entire cast would reunite (including Wil Wheaton) to celebrate TNG’s 25th Anniversary and fans showed up in droves!
Everywhere I looked there were Starfleet captains and Vulcans roaming the convention floor. Lines for photographs with their favorite actors were hundreds deep and the lines for autographs were never ending. I haven’t seen this much enthusiasm for Star Trek in years and it was very cool to see so much for TNG. The Blot personally grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and it’s still my favorite version of Star Trek. I even geeked out a little meeting a very sick Wheaton (what a trooper for being there!) and took a picture with Mr. Reading Rainbow, LeVar Burton! Burton was hilarious, and everyone was raving about all five Star Trek panels held throughout the weekend.
The only crowd that even came close to rivaling that of Patrick Stewart’s was The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus. That guy is a freaking rock star! Seriously, fans of all ages were going crazy every time he appeared. I never saw him without a completely full line every time he was at his booth. The Walking Dead mania is definitely sweeping the country! While the comic book presence over all was down at ACC, every vendor I spoke to was selling crazy amounts of Walking Dead comics at insane prices! I personally saw multiple high dollar comics sold to Walking Dead fans who proudly professed they had never read a comic in their lives.
Even though I was bummed the show didn’t have a larger comic book focus, all in all I was really glad to see the show continue to grow. Hopefully some of that will rub off on the comic scene as well! Regardless, I got to catch up with some of my favorite local artists and retailers throughout the weekend, and marvel at the artwork of Jim Cheung!
The Blot had a killer weekend and saw some amazing costumes as well. While I loved the Kid Predator and the homemade Wonder Girl costume, my favorite has to be the two girls dressed up as Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000!!! When was the last time you saw two girls cosplaying as characters from MST3K!?! It was amazing. I’m already excited for Austin Comic-Con 2013, but scheduling it the weekend before Thanksgiving is going to make it almost impossible to attend. It’ll be interesting to see how that affects out of town attendance for the convention’s 4th year.
